Basically, yeah. It’s somewhere between blonde and brunette — the perfect balance between the two. Major stars are ditching their signature colors for this hot new hue. Blake Lively dyed her gorgeous blonde locks a shade of “bronde” earlier this month and people went crazy over it!

I’m naturally brunette, but have been rocking the blonde for a while now. With this strawberry color I wanted to do something different. I’m always fighting my natural warm color by bleaching and trying to maintain an ashy blonde. Which means I have to constantly get my hair done and the health of my hair ends up suffering.

This is why, this time around I decided to go warm, have a hint of red, but stay in the blonde-ish area. Basically I wanted the best of three worlds. [Stylist] Kristin, who’s a red-head herself, helped me find the right shade of red and what to do to make the color last.

I decided on this “strawberry bronde” color, which has been such a relief to my hair since I was relying on extensions to cover up the damage up until now. Seriously, I was doing the most. Since I’m now embracing my hair’s natural warmth and no longer fighting to make it make blonde, I’m getting a break from the bleach and can rock my real hair length.

And here’s the final result of Ashley’s strawberry bronde look.

Call me crazy, but I hate this color. First of all, I was naturally born a “bronde” and I’ve fought all my adult life to change it! (I thought it was called “dirty blonde” though, not a very nice term for hair color) I just don’t find anything “standout” about it. I do love the fact that it’s totally low-maintenance (no roots! no brassiness! no fading!) but that’s about it. I’m hoping this trend will fall away with the leaves this coming autumn. To me, bronde is the color I go when I’m switching from my normal platinum blonde hue to a rich brunette and don’t want to fry my hair in one sitting. Sorry brondes. I’ll pass on this one!